124 BACON'S ESSAYS 



too much time in studies is sloth ; to use them too much 

 for ornament, is affectation ; to make judgment wholly by 

 their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect 

 nature, and are perfected by experience : for natural 

 abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by 

 study ; and studies themselves do give forth directions too 

 much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. 

 Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and 

 wise men use them ; for they teach not their own use ; but 

 that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by- 

 observation. Read not to contradict and confute ; nor 

 to believe and take for granted ; nor to find talk and 

 discourse ; but to weigh and consider. 

 : -' Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, 

 and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some 

 books are to be read only in parts ; others to be read, but 

 not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly, and with 

 diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by 

 deputy, and extracts made of them by others ; but that 

 would be only in the less important arguments, and the 

 meaner sort of books ; else distilled books are like common 

 distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full 

 man ; conference a ready man ; and writing an exact man. 

 And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a 

 great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a 

 present wit : and if he read little, he had need have much 

 cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories 

 make men wise ; poets witty ; the mathematics subtile ; 

 natural philosophy deep ; moral grave ; logic and rhetoric 

 able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. Nay there is no 

 stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out 

 by fit studies : like as diseases of the body may have 

 appropriate exercises. 



Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for 

 the lungs and breast ; gentle walking for the stomach ; 

 riding for the head ; and the like. So if a man's wit be 

 wandering, let him study the mathematics ; for in demon- 

 strations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must 

 begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find 



